Reviews

john parry

I ventured along to Porter tonight mainly to see Sam’s support slot with John Parry. She is a Bath based singer songwriter who I have seen play a couple of times and in the last few months she has been playing more gigs and building up her portfolio of songs, a number of which are already lodged in my head. The thing I like about Sam is the quiet confidence and presence she has on stage. This immediately draws your attention to her before she’s sung a note. She has a beautiful and enchanting voice that is both sultry and soulful. Her lyrics are sung with a gentle melancholy highlighted by a slight reverb on her microphone that draw the audience in. As soon as she began singing the place was silent. She sings about love and longing with words that perfectly compliment the delicate melodies she plays. “We all seem to need the help of someone else…someone else who understands…time is always time on my mind”. “You are confined to this body, you’ll always be travelling downstream towards him, he will always find you safe at his feet”. Her melodies are memorable, most notably her song about Jezebel, “born to be a woman I would know” and her penultimate song with the chorus “I want you here tonight, I want you here because I can’t believe what I’ve found. Nothing is bringing me down except you my love” . Sam is a talented songwriter and in the next year it would be great to see her playing her songs to some new audiences outside Bath. I think she would go down a treat!

I was going to leave after Sams set but luckily didn’t. The three piece (drums, bass and electric piano) that followed were fantastic and played some stunningly beautiful music. The vocalist and pianist had a very Tom Waits-esque voice backed by slow delicate melodies that created a great contrast. They used a number of orchestral backing tracks as well that gave their music a huge melodic grandeur in the vein of Sigur Ros. They also had a visual element in the form of a screen behind them. To begin with it simply showed a picture of a mountain covered with snow. As their set continued videos were projected behind them. A woman slowly dancing in front of a window overlooking a city shifting to fast paced city scenes. Medieval soldiers having a battle followed by a crowd of rock fans moshing again in contrast to the ethereal dark mantras slowly building to a climax before burning away. Almost childlike melodies with a spacial backing. I’d love to find out some more about this band because I was very impressed and moved.

This article is the copyright property of Moles Company Ltd. It may be copied freely without permission or payment, but any copies of this article must contain this copyright ownership notice, and include the entirety of this statement including the link to the Moles website.

Ed Cesar